president will be much more effective in his debate with paul ryan than the president was in his debate with mitt romney because the vice president is used to getting beaten up. >> well, that's not a really high bar, is it, now. gene robinson, you wrote "obama's off night gives romney an opening." and i do think that joe biden has been out there and is used to getting beat up. and i think will do very well in the debate along with paul ryan. but your column, talking about obama's off night. can you help us out here? we're trying to figure out what happened to president obama. where was he? >> where was he? that's the question. it was really, you know, you kind of watched the thing unfold and just wondered when it was -- when the debate was going to start, basically, because -- and when the president was going to, you know, become president obama again. all the stuff you guys said in the last segment is probably right about that performance. and it's not that unusual, if you look historically for an incumbent president to have a rough time out of the blocks on the debates. and they tend